A Complete Guide on How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Why You Should Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Transcribing YouTube videos to text can give you a lot of advantages, whether you are a YouTube content creator or just a common viewer.

1. For YouTube Creators

If you are a content creator on YouTube, it is very necessary to convert your video into text. Here are some reasons:

• Enhance accessibility: Transcribing your YouTube video to text allows you to reach a wider audience, including those who are deaf and hard of hearing. You can also translate the transcribed text into different languages, allowing non-native speakers to understand your content.
• Content repurposing: Some video transcripts are suitable for blog posts. You can convert your YouTube videos into text, edit and format them, and publish them on major social media to expand your influence.

2. For YouTube Users

Common YouTube viewers can also convert YouTube videos to text. Here are some reasons:

• Facilitating learning: YouTube contains a wealth of free educational videos. Transcribing these videos into text allows you to take notes more easily. Since many of these videos are in foreign languages, you can translate the transcripts into a language you understand.
• Finding content: Watching long videos can be time-consuming. By transcribing videos to text, you can quickly locate specific content within the video, saving your time.

How to Get Your Own YouTube Video Transcripts

YouTube will automatically generate subtitles for your videos. If you have already published your video on YouTube, you can find and download its subtitles in YouTube Studio. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Go to YouTube Studio

Visit https://studio.youtube.com/ and sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the Video

Switch to the Subtitles tab on the left menu. Then, find the video you want to get transcripts from, and click the thumbnail or the title of this video.

Step 3: Download the Video Subtitles

Move your cursor over the subtitles you want, click the Options icon, select Download, and then choose to download the subtitles as VTT, SRT, or SBV.

Step 4: Open the Video Transcript

Once the video transcript is downloaded, the Downloads window will show the downloaded file. Click Open file to access the file directly.

The above method can only download subtitles for videos you uploaded. You can also choose to use third-party tools to extract texts from your YouTube videos. In addition, these third-party tools can also help you get transcripts of other people’s videos.

How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

There are two ways to transcribe YouTube videos that belong to others: one is to use a video-to-text converter, and the other is to go to the YouTube video playback page and copy the transcripts (if available). Next, I will explain all the methods I used in detail.

Method 1. Use MiniTool Video Converter

MiniTool Video Converter is a desktop application for Windows. It is a multifunctional toolbox that integrates audio and video format conversion, video compression, screen recording, and intelligent subtitle generation. Its Intelligent Subtitle feature simplifies the transcription process for YouTube videos, ensuring high accuracy.

MiniTool Video Converter allows you to create subtitles for your videos quickly. It offers a range of customization options, including various fonts, colors, and the ability to add a background color to the subtitles. You can also adjust their position within the video for optimal viewing.

This YouTube video to text converter can generate transcriptions of your video and export them in SRT or TXT formats. Furthermore, you can also export the video with subtitles as MP4 files.

Below is a complete guide on how to extract text from YouTube video with MiniTool Video Converter:

Step 1: Download and Install MiniTool Video Converter

Here I embed a download button. You can click it to install the latest version of MiniTool Video Converter on your desktop.

MiniTool Video ConverterClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 2: Select an AI Model

Open MiniTool Video Converter and go to the Intelligent Subtitles tab. Then, click on the Choose AI Model option to select a model that best suits you. After that, click OK to download the model you selected.

Step 3: Upload a YouTube Video

Click the Choose Video option to upload the YouTube video you downloaded. Then, MiniTool Video Converter will analyze the video.

Step 4: Modify the Generated Text

On the right panel, you can see the generated texts. If you want to modify a sentence, click the edit icon. After making your changes, click the tick icon to save them.

Step 5: Choose the Exported Format

To export the video transcription, check the Export subtitle option, and choose Srt File (.srt) or Text File (.txt).

Step 6: Select the Save Location and Export the File

Expand the Output option and select the folder in which you want to save the generated transcriptions. Then, click the Export option.

MiniTool Video Converter can extract text from video for free. In addition to video-to-text, it also supports transcribing audio to text. You can convert meeting recordings and other content into text for storage.

Besides, MiniTool Video Converter is a free video conversion tool. It supports converting video and audio files to over 1,000 formats. You can also customize video and audio parameters. Additionally, features such as video compression and screen recording are definitely worth exploring.

Method 2. Use VEED

VEED is known as an online video editing platform. It offers many easy-to-use tools for content creation, including a video-to-text converter, an image-to-video converter, a volume enhancer, a progress bar generator, and so on. I used the video-to-text tool to convert YouTube video to notes, and the majority of the content was accurately transcribed.

VEED’s video-to-text converter allows you to choose the speaker’s language, further ensuring the accuracy of the transcription. It supports importing multiple video formats, including MP4, M4V, WebM, WMV, AVI, and more. The transcribed text can be exported to formats as TXT, SRT, or VTT.

Note: VEED only supports downloading the video with generated subtitles for free. Saving the separate text file requires a paid subscription.

If you want to use VEED to generate video transcripts automatically, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to the Homepage of VEED

Navigate to https://www.veed.io/ to go to the homepage of VEED. Then, expand the Product option, choose More Tools, and select the Video to Text option. In the new page, click the Transcribe a video to text button.

Step 2: Upload the YouTube Video

In the Video to Text window, click Upload a File and select the YouTube video. Or you can just drag and drop the YouTube video to the window.

Step 3: Choose the Language

Choose the spoken language in the video and click the Auto-subtitle in English button.

Step 4: Download the Video Transcripts

It may take minutes to generate the transcript. Once complete, click the Download button in the Transcription window. Then, choose the text format you want and click Download.

VEED can generate transcripts with high accuracy. However, uploading videos and transcribing them can be slow. VEED is also an online video editor. After transcribing, you can edit the video and export it.

Method 3. Use HappyScribe

HappyScribe is an online transcription-generating platform. It can be an easy-to-use YouTube video to text converter. You can connect your YouTube account with HappyScribe and generate transcripts for your videos. Additionally, this online tool also supports pasting a video URL and transcribing the video to text.

HappyScribe stands out from other transcription tools because it provides manual transcription. Manual transcription is more accurate than automated transcription. However, it costs $2.00 per minute and may result in longer processing times. Therefore, I suggest using HappyScribe’s free automated transcription feature and then reviewing and editing the text yourself.

Next, follow the instructions below to convert YouTube video to text with HappyScribe:

Step 1: Go to HappyScribe’s Website

Visit https://www.happyscribe.com/ and click Start for free. Then, sign up with your Google, Apple, Microsoft, or SSO (Single Sign-On) account.

Step 2: Upload the YouTube Video

When the interface appears with the prompt “What would you like to create?”, select the Transcript option. Then, you have 4 ways to add a YouTube video to HappyScribe:

1. Drag and drop the video file into the dotted box to upload the saved YouTube video.
2. Click the Select a file from your device option and select the downloaded YouTube video.
3. Select the Paste a link option. Then paste the YouTube URL into the box to add a YouTube video.
4. Click the Youtube option, allow HappyScribe to access your YouTube account, and then select your YouTube video.

Step 3: Start Transcribing

Then, select the speaker’s language. You can also choose the translated language if needed. Next, select manual or machine transcription. After that, click Create transcription to start transcribing!

Step 4: Export the Video Transcripts

In the new page, find the video transcript. Next, click the more icon and select the Export option from the drop-down menu. Then, choose a text format (TXT, PDF, Docx, or SRT) and click Export file.

HappyScribe offers free machine transcription and paid manual transcription. Machine transcription is only 85% accurate, so some errors are inevitable. After exporting the file, you can review the text and correct any errors.

Method 4. Get Transcripts from YouTube Playback Page

While watching YouTube videos, I noticed that some videos have a Show transcript button in the description area. When I click it, the transcript appears and I can copy the text. This is another way to access a YouTube video transcript. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Play a YouTube Video

Go to the YouTube website and play a YouTube video.

Step 2: Expand the Video Description

Click …more to expand the video description.

Step 3: Show Video Transcript

If the video creator has enabled transcripts, you will see the Show Transcript button in the video description. Clicking this button will display the transcript to the right of the player, along with timestamps for each line of text.

Step 4: Copy the Video Transcript

The transcripts can be copied. If you want to copy the text without the timestamp, click the more icon in the upper-right corner of the Transcript window and select Toggle timestamps. Then, select the transcribed texts by highlighting them with your mouse, and click Ctrl + C on your keyboard to copy them.

Step 5: Save the Video Transcript

Open Microsoft Word to create a blank document. Then, paste the transcript into this document for review. After making corrections to the text, you can save the document to your computer.

If you find that some videos do not have the Show transcript option, it could be due to a variety of factors:

• The content creator may disable the ability to display a transcript.
• The video was recently published and YouTube has not yet generated a transcript.
• The audio quality of the video is poor, so YouTube can’t generate a transcript.

It’s very convenient to get transcripts directly from YouTube. However, you can only copy the text and can’t save it as a common subtitle file, such as SRT, VTT, TXT, etc.

What Do VTT and SRT Refer to & How to Convert VTT to SRT?

What do the VTT and SRT files refer to? How do you convert VTT to SRT? You will find the answers to those two questions in this article.

Read More

Wrapping Up

YouTube allows you to download transcripts of your own videos in Creator Studio. However, if you want to save transcripts of someone else’s YouTube videos, you can only use third-party tools to transcribe YouTube video to text, such as MiniTool Video Converter, VEED, or HappyScribe. In addition, you can directly view and copy transcripts of some videos from the YouTube video’s playback page.

If you encounter any issues while using MiniTool Video Converter, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected].